GECA’s Claim Authenticated mark gives consumers confidence in purchasing or using your service and products, avoiding greenwash. Greenwashing refers to companies making self-declared incorrect, misleading, and sometimes entirely false claims. This can lead to a loss of legitimacy and reputation in the marketplace and is also a breach of Australian Consumer Law.
Examples of problematic claims include:
• Those with no supporting data or other forms of evidence
• Where details relating to a claim are not publicly available
• When there is no independent third-party verification
• If the claim has no relevance to the product category
• When the claim is masking other serious impacts generated over a product or service’s lifecycle
Individuals are increasingly more conscious about how they consume. Trust and transparency are integral factors in creating lasting behaviour change. The best marketing an organisation can do is prove its commitment to positive social and environmental impacts. Unlike meaningless “green” symbols or self-declared claims on a product or service, the GECA Claim Authenticated mark provides independent third-party assurance that your claim has been substantiated through an in-depth exploration and desktop audit on specific claims.
With GECA’s Claims Authentication service, conscious consumers will be able to confidently differentiate your product, service or organisation from others that may have false or misleading claims. Importantly, our service follows the internationally recognised ISO 14021 – ‘Environmental Labels and Declarations’ – self-declared environmental claims (Type II environmental labelling) principles. GECA’s Standards & Technical team conducts a research and criteria development phase, assessment against criteria and independent review of findings. GECA ensures that specific criteria are developed and that a technical specialist, separate from the criteria development, checks all documentation to ensure credibility.
As part of our broader Claims Authentication service, GECA has partnered with the Vinyl Council of Australia (VCA) to verify recycled PVC content claims, encouraging recycled PVC uptake and related innovation. Click here for more information.
All GECA Authenticated Claims have the following attributes:
• Accurate and truthful
• Presented clearly
• Seeks best practice or eliminates the worst practice
• Material to the product or service
• Demonstrates an impact
• Specific
• Verifiable
• Compliant to ISO 14021
“We found the market is moving to make greener choices and consumers want to easily identify and choose products, services or organisations that are aligned with their eco-ideals. We conducted thorough research and felt the GECA Claims Authentication process would give our customers confidence in our claim that the rubber used in our rubber bands is derived from natural rubber trees” – Mark Moffett, Director of Bounce Rubber Bands.
If your company is ready to go beyond a self-declared claim, contact us today to learn how to get started!
